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STORRS — Campus celebrations are winding down after two nights of championship parties, yet the off-court excitement could be just beginning at the University of Connecticut.

With students, faculty and alumni beaming with pride following the men's and women's basketball team's national titles, the university administration is looking far beyond the Gampel Pavilion sports arena for a payoff.

The teams' accomplishments led national news and sports broadcasts and appeared on news or sports pages of newspapers across the world.

"It's amazing. It lets everyone know we're something special here," said Danielle Deschene, an 18-year-old freshman from Norwich who was sporting a Huskies sweatshirt while buying a T-shirt for her dad at a campus bookstore.

This isn't the first time the Huskies have pulled off the men's and women's NCAA basketball sweep: UConn is the only school to ever win Division I men's and women's titles in the same year, a feat also accomplished in 2004.

That's the kind of publicity money can't buy any college or university. And, the result is an expected boost financially, in admissions applications and recruiting.

UConn President Susan Herbst said it is hard to quantify the effect the titles will have on donations and student applications, but she's sure they'll increase.

"They get the attention, they win, and then I take that attention and turn it toward the academic mission," she said Tuesday. "People are thinking about UConn and when they get to me with congratulations, then, I have to talk about our health center, our excellence in education, our student success."

Brian Otis, vice president of development at the University of Connecticut Foundation, said the national titles have contributed to a major hike in fundraising from less than $20 million annually in the 1990s to $63 million last year.

"The success has raised the bar of excellence across the university," he said. "There was a period where mediocrity was the acceptable level of performance. That's no longer the case. Being competitive on a national, international level is the standard."

The main campus at Storrs was quiet with light pedestrian traffic Wednesday morning after thousands of students celebrated the previous two nights. Blue and white balloons honoring the Huskies' colors were tied to mailboxes leading to campus and TV news trucks were parked outside Gampel Pavilion.

The UConn women's team was expected to return home Wednesday afternoon and celebrate with a "victory lap" around campus in an open-air, double-decker bus and speeches near the Student Union. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced that a parade for both teams will be held Sunday in Hartford.

The NCAA basketball titles — a record ninth for the women and fourth for the men — deliver a boost to the UConn brand, Herbst said.

The school's image took a hit in 2013 because the men's team was banned from the NCAA tournament over academic performance issues. The school also is facing a Title IX lawsuit over its response to sexual assault allegations on campus. Those headlines have been replaced by stories about men and women performing at a high level on and off the court and the school celebrating both championships.

The school's rise over the past 20 years as an athletic power has coincided with a rise in academic prowess. More than 29,500 students have applied for enrollment next fall. That is more than twice the applications the school received in 2001. And the school has said the pool of applicants also has higher SAT scores and more diversity than previous classes.

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